What stands out is how unique their sound is. It’s very David Lynchian. Musically it is classic dark pop. Lyrically it is more modern. The songs are classic romantic love songs, but filled with references to life today.

Real Death is spoken, not really sung – only sung in places. A guitar slowly strums long open chords, the spoken words move to form a melody and Phil Elverum tells a story. It’s very similar to what Mark Kozelek does in Sun Kil Moon, or Bill Callahan has pushed towards more and more since leaving Smog. Musically it’s very similar to early Will Oldham in his Palace days.

I think the musical career of Sun Kil Moon’s Mark Kozelek can (for now) be divided into 3 periods: first is his band the Red House Painters, second is the SKM albums from Ghosts of the Great Highway to Benji; the third is Benji to today.